


Soldiers

by leighwrites



Series: Reddie Oneshots [9]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, First Kiss, Fix It Fic, Fuck you canon, M/M, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, confession of feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 22:34:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20956004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leighwrites/pseuds/leighwrites





	Soldiers

**In this life there’s no surrender, there’s nothing left for us to do, find the strength to see this through.**

The Neibolt house stands looming in the dark, looking as horrifying as it did when they were kids. They didn’t  _ really  _ have a plan right now. All they knew was that they were going in there. They were going to face the creature that had spent an entire summer terrorizing them in any way it could. Richie tilts his head back and stares up at the house, taking in the way it almost blends into the dark sky. He can vaguely hear Bill talking but he’s too transfixed on the house to really pay attention to him. He remembers everything now, and he remembers what happened the last time he was here.

_ “Don’t fucking touch me.” _

“Bill, we’re not asking.” Beverly says, her voice drawing Richie’s attention back to the group around him.

“Yeah,” Mike pauses for a moment and lifts his head a little higher to look at Bill, “you didn’t do it alone then and you’re not gonna do it now.”

Ben tucks his hands into his pockets and draws his arms to his sides like he’s shielding himself. “Losers stick together.”

“Does someone say something?” Eddie asks, looking around warily at his friends.

There’s a moment of silence, and Bill finally speaks, his attention settling on Richie. “I think Richie said it best the last time we were here.”

“I did?” All eyes are on him now, and Richie furrows his brow as he tries to remember what he said. There was a lot of it. As a child he didn’t  _ shut the fuck up _ . How was he supposed to remember one specific line in all the things he’d said back then? “I don’t wanna die here?”

Bill shakes his head and looks almost disappointed that Richie can’t recall what he’d said. “No.”

“You guys are lucky we’re not measuring dicks?” Bill looks frustrated at that one, but Richie doesn’t miss the way Eddie covers a laugh with a cough. And there’s something, right in that moment that strikes in the back of his head.  _ And now - I’m gonna have to -  _ “Kill this fucking clown?”

Bill smiles, and there’s an encouraging nod that accompanies it. “Yeah.”

“Let’s kill this fucking clown.”

The inside of the house is dark, and it looks even more condemned than the last time they stepped foot in it. It looks dustier than before, and there’s a definite increase in cobwebs clinging to almost every surface they can see. Richie’s eyes land on the stairs,and he squints to try and make out the liquid on them. He doesn’t know if it’s blood or tar, but it’s bubbling somewhat as it drips down like a waterfall.

Richie veers to the side, away from the stairs and towards the kitchen after Beverly. “Well, I love what he’s done with the place.”

Beverly shines her flashlight around the hallway and glances back at him over his shoulder with a look that conveys that this is  _ not  _ the time for any of his jokes. “Beep, beep, Richie.”

Richie rolls his eyes and veers off again, this time after Eddie and Bill because that feels  _ right _ . That’s who he’d come in with before. That’s who he should be with now. They step into the kitchen where the broken table stills lies in the middle of the room and Eddie flinches as the memory of falling through the ceiling into it and breaking his arm comes back to him. He sticks to the wall, as far away from the table as he can, and keeps his attention fixed on Bill and Richie who are across the room.

Bill points his flashlight towards a door, holding it high. “Thu-there’s the basement.”

There’s a sudden yell from Ben in the hallway and it snaps the three of them into action. They rush for the door, towards the pained scream and Beverly’s concerned shouts, but the door slams shut a second before they reach it. Bill slams into it, starts to bang on the door to try and open it, but the door refuses to budge. Richie’s hands drop from the door as the fridge behind them starts to rattle, aiming the beam of his light at it. Slowly, Eddie’s hands drop too, and then Bill’s, the three of them staring at the rattling fridge.

Richie takes a step towards it, carefully, because he doesn’t know what the fuck is in there. “Shit that’s not good is it?” 

Eddie’s barely sent him a sideways glance that embodies ‘no shit’ before the door is slowly swinging open to reveal the inside.

_ The contorted form of the clown shifted in the confined space of the fridge, it’s attention fixing on Eddie as it slowly unfurls itself from inside. _

Only it’s not the clown this time. It’s Stan - the way  _ they  _ remember him - thirteen years old, contorted and packed into the fridge. His head shifts and stares at them, Eddie can feel Richie tense up beside him, and when he glances to him, Richie looks confused and afraid, but that doesn’t stop his mouth from saying something dumb.

“Hey, it’s Stan.”

The contorted zombie looking Stan screams and his head dislodges from his body, rolling towards them. Richie jumps to the side, into Eddie who stumbles towards the wall, and somehow stands upright when it bumps into the table. He doesn’t seem concerned about Eddie, his eyes landing on Bill.

“I’d still be alive if it wasn’t for you, Bill.” Stan says, his attention immediately snapping to Richie as something pokes at the inside of his face, trying to make its way out of his cheek. “Richie? What’s happening to me?”

Before Richie can even open his mouth, there’s a noise like something tearing, and a long spider leg protrudes from Stan’s cheek. It’s not the only one to emerge, and as more of them do, Stan’s head starts to cackle before it charges for Richie. Richie can hear Eddie off to his side saying ‘no’ over and over again, backing himself into a corner as far away from Stan’s head as he can. Bill grabs a piece of the broken table and swings it, smacking the head over a ledge into another room.

Richie, however, is focused on Eddie who is very much panicking in the corner. He keeps the flashlight trained on him as he slowly approaches and tries not to startle him. “Eddie? Are you okay?” Eddie opens his mouth, tries to respond, but before he can there’s a thick string of drool dripping between them. They slowly look up, Richie pointing his flashlight at the rafters where they can now see the head grinning down at them. “Oh. There he is.”

The spider-like head shrieks and launches from the rafters, muffling anything Richie is trying to say as it latches to his face. Every now and then Eddie can hear Richie screaming to  _ get this fucking thing off me _ but the static is starting to build in his head as panic takes over. They’re going to die here in this gross germ infested house. Bill is shouting at him, but Eddie can’t hear him, the static is too strong. He just wants to be out of this stupid house - wants to go home - well maybe not  _ home  _ home, but he wants out of this house and town. He feels like he’s thirteen again, and the fear is constricting at his chest, making it hard to breathe.

The next thing he registers is Bill in front of him, slamming a hand against his shoulder. “He almost died! What is  _ wrong _ with you?” Behind Bill, Eddie can just about make Richie out. He’s panting from the fight with the spider, and Ben is nearby with a bloodied piece of mirror. “Georgie’s dead - and Stan - and the kid - a-and you want Ruh-Richie to die too?” He gives Eddie a firm shake. “ _ You want Richie to die too? _ ”

Eddie starts shaking his head. No. He doesn’t want that. How could Bill think he’d ever want  _ Richie  _ to die of all people? “No, no. I don’t want Richie to - please don’t be mad Bill. I was just scared.”

Something crosses Bill’s face, almost understanding and sympathetic, and he releases Eddie. “Th-that’s what he wants. Don’t give it to him.”

**We, are the ones who will never be broken, with our final breath, we’ll fight to the death, we are soldiers.**

The cistern is flooded this time around when they enter it - forcing them to wade through water that reaches up their stomachs. They know it’s the right place because of the high ceiling and the sewer grate above that lets in some light, and Eddie feels the shudder that creeps down his spine when he remembers the dead missing kids floating up there. Somehow the place less creepier when it’s flooded. They’re shivering and soaked when they climb onto the remains of what Beverly remembers to be the cart Pennywise had ambushed her from. Mike opens a circular door with a tribal looking marking on it and jumps into climb down. Eddie watches as his friends jump in, one by one, until it’s just him and Richie standing around the door.

“I can’t do this Rich.” Eddie says, looking away from the door to the flooded cistern where there’s trash floating around. “You saw what happens up there. I froze. You could have died because of me. If I go... I’m gonna get us all killed.”

Eddie’s panicking, reaching for his inhaler to use it. He doesn’t need it, he’s  _ never  _ needed it. Richie’s not about to let Eddie fall back into his old habits - the ones that were bad for him. He couldn’t stop them as a child, but he could damn well stop him now. He steps forward, grabs Eddie’s wrist, and wrestles it away from him.

“Give it to me.” It’s not an order, and he knows Eddie knows that too, but it doesn’t stop him panicking further - increasing his determination to use it. “Give it.” Richie says, snagging the inhaler from Eddie’s hand. “Who kills a psychotic clown before he was fourteen huh?”

Eddie meets Richie’s gaze which is warm and comforting. “Me.”

“And who stabbed Bowers with a knife  _ he pulled out of his own face? _ ”

Eddie glances away from him. “Also me.”

Richie grins now, holding his hand out with the inhaler in it towards Eddie. “Who married a woman ten times his own body mass.”

Eddie groans, and it’s a spark of  _ his  _ Eddie still in there, buried under the fear as he grabs the inhaler and shoves it into his pocket. “Me.”

“Yeah, you’re braver than you think. We’ve all froze at some point whether it was now or years ago, but there’s a group of us. If one of us messes up, and it probably gonna be me, our friends will be there to help.” Richie lifts his now empty hand and pats Eddie’s cheek with the bandage on it firmly a couple of times. “I’ll stick with you.”

“Ow.”

“Sorry.”

“No you’re fucking not. Asshole.” Eddie mutters, looking down at the hole at their feet. “Thanks.”

There’s more that Eddie wants to say - things he’d bottled up when they were younger, and there’s something that tells him it’s the same for Richie, but whatever they want to say, whatever they’re not saying, can wait. They have a clown to kill first. Eddie takes in a deep breath and jumps down after their friends, leaving Richie alone. Richie looks around the flooded cistern one last time before he exhales.

If he survives this, he’s gonna come clean.

“It’s about time you two joined us.” Beverly says once they’re gathered at the bottom of the pit, trying to work out where to go next. There’s something almost knowing in her tone, and in the way she looks at them.

It makes Richie uneasy. She couldn’t possibly know about him or how he felt, could she? He’s saved from spiralling by Mike who takes a step away from them into a rocky hallway. “This way.”

They follow the curve of the hallway, squeeze through a section of rocks one by one, and stand at the edge of a ledge in an archway that overlooks a chamber. There’s something in the middle, the remains of a meteor maybe, and Richie realises this must be the place. This was where  _ IT  _ landed. 

Beverly hangs back as the others climb down the ledges, and she holds a piece of the spiked fence out to Eddie. “Here, take this. It kills monsters.”

Eddie takes the fence piece and looks it over. “It does?”

“If you believe it does.”

Eddie keeps a firm grip on it as they climb down to join the others. Richie tilts his head back as they head for the meteor remains, staring up at the gorge walls which seem to be moving, and it looks like they have teeth. He can see something - a light maybe - higher up, but he can’t work out if its artificial or real.

“Has this been under Derry like… forever?” Eddie asks as they gather in the middle of the remains in a circle.

Mike sets the leathery pot on the ground in the middle of the circle a their feet. “Only a few million years.” He gives them a run down, explains that they have to burn the past with the present, because they have to fight IT in its real form.

“I hope it’s a puppy - like a Pomeranian -” Richie rambles, his attention returning to the pot. He just wants to ease the tension, try to keep everyone relaxed, something that apparently isn’t working. “I’ll shut up.”

Bill is the first to throw an item into the pot, the boat he made with Georgie which Mike lights on fire to start them off. Beverly is next, dropping in her postcard, followed by Eddie who takes one final puff of his inhaler before throwing it in. Richie immediately follows suit, throwing a token from the arcade in.

“You brought a token?” Eddie asks in disbelief. “Like an  _ actual  _ token?”

“Yeah.” Richie shrugs a shoulder, but he looks confused by Eddie’s disbelief. “That’s what we were supposed to do.”

“It’s not gonna burn.”

“You inhaler isn’t going to burn either! You know - the plastic and fumes?”

Eddie opens his mouth to respond, cut off by Mike showing them a bloodied rock which he tosses into the pot. Eddie is suddenly struck with a thought - the showercap he took from the clubhouse. He tugs it from his pocket and scrunches it up, tossing it into the pot. Something finally happens, the walls seem to shudder, and Richie’s already looking up to see a bright light heading for them.

“Don’t look at it!” Mike snaps.

_ The deadlights _ , Richie realises, snapping his eyes shut. That’s IT’s true form.

**I stand here right beside you, tonight we’re fighting for our lives, let me hear your battle cry. **

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The ritual wasn’t supposed to  _ fail _ . But it  _ has  _ failed, and Pennywise is right there.  _ Mocking them _ \- mocking  _ Mike _ . It creeps around the remains of the meteor, grips part of the spiked remains in its gloved hand, but doesn’t come out. Instead, smoke pours from the pot of burned items, and then a sphere of light bursts out into the air, followed by another, and another.

“The deadlights!” Beverly yells. “Don’t look at them!”

“For twenty-seven years I’ve dreamed of you.” Pennywise creeps out from inside the meteor. It’s bigger now, and its body has taken more of a spider shape. “I craved you.  _ Ohhh, I’ve missed you.  _ I’ve waited for this  _ very  _ moment.”

Pennywise lunges, swings a scythe shaped limb for them, and they run. Pennywise takes chase after them, swings its limbs and destroys pieces of the meteor remains. It forces them apart. Mike skids under a piece of the meteor. Richie grabs Eddie by the arm, yanks him aside towards a small archway. He doesn’t know where the others are. He stops, turns, and sees the large form of the spider-like clown that’s snapping its mouth at an opening trying to get to someone.

“Can he see us?” Richie asks, and he’s spoken too soon because Pennywise’s head snaps up, turns to look at them, and it sends dread running through him. “Oh shit nevermind.”

They don’t stick around and wait for It to reach them as it starts to move, taking off down the rocky hallway behind them. A long arm reaches in for them, tries to grab them, and they don’t stop, not until they’re suddenly faced with three doors at the end of the hallway.

Very Scary, Scary, Not Scary At All.

_ Bill and Richie share a glance, looking between the doors and each other. How were they supposed to know which door to take? They lunge, naturally for the one marked Not Scary At All.  _

“Okay, not scary, right?” Eddie asks, pointing his flashlight at each door. He knows that Richie has encountered these doors before back in the house with Bill - knows that if anyone knows which door to pick - it’s Richie - and Eddie has faith in him to do that.

Richie panickedly glances between the doors. “No, no, wait, wait. Uh… they’re flipped. He’s fucking with us. Come on, trust me.”

“Are you sure?” Eddie asks as Richie makes for the ‘Very Scary’ door. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Richie, he just wants to make sure Richie remembers correctly, that he’s not too panicked by the arm swinging into the hallway behind them.

“Yes.” Richie reaches for the handle of the door and pulls it open.

_ It was a closet, and inside was the upper half of Betty swinging from the rail. _

It’s a closet this time too, but it’s empty, and Richie’s not sure if that’s a good thing or not. The sound of tapping reaches them, like someone is dancing, and out of the dark skips a pair of legs that have been torn from a body. 

Richie slams the door shut and takes a step back. “Okay, he’s not fucking with us. Let’s go with Not Scary at All.”

Eddie’s already a step ahead of him, opening the door. They can see the rest of the hallway, but as they glance down, there’s a Pomeranian sitting there in the middle of the doorframe, looking up at them almost too innocently.

Eddie glances to Richie, and then back at the dog. “Oh shit I’m not falling for this shit again.”

Richie nods his agreement, lowering his flashlight and never once taking his eyes off the dog. “Yeah that thing’s a fucking monster.” He leans into the doorway, eyeing the dog. “I know your moves you little bitch.”

Eddie looks back over his shoulder to find no sign of Pennywise and tugs at Richie’s sleeve to get his attention. “Rich - it’s gone man.”

Richie looks over his shoulder to confirm Eddie’s words, feels the relief sink in, and then he looks back to the dog. “Okay - okay  _ sit. _ ”

Eddie can barely contain the excited noise he makes when the dog actually sits down. “He did it!”

“That’s actually cute.”

“There’s a good boy.”

The dog barks, tail thumping as it tilts its head towards Richie. “That’s actually  _ really  _ cute.”

It happens quickly, too quickly to  _ really  _ react. One second it’s a cute innocent little Pomeranian puppy that’s staring up at them and wagging their tail happily, and the next it’s turned into some grotesque horrific monster that they’re sure could  _ only  _ exist in some kind of horror video game. It’s body twists in weird and awkward ways, almost  _ spinning _ as cracks sound like its bones are snapping and reforming, and it shrieks. Eddie’s not sure which of them screams - maybe it’s both of them - but Richie slams the door shut as it lunges and they take off back down the hallway.

They’d rather go and face Pennywise than  _ that _ .

“Next time we just go with regular scary!” Eddie shouts as the flashlight slips from his head and bounces onto the floor.

“ _ Next time? _ ” Richie parrots in a shriek, not looking back over his shoulder to know that Eddie has stopped to pick up his light, causing him to fall back. He refuses to look back in case that dog is following them.

He fucking  _ hopes _ there’s not a next time.

**We stand shoulder to shoulder, you can’t erase us you’ll just have to face us.**

Richie emerges from the hallway to see Pennywise stabbing its long limbs at the pieces of meteor that Mike is hiding behind. He doesn’t think. He grabs the first rock that he can pick up and throws it, landing a hit on it’s head. Pennywise snaps its head in Richie’s direction registers where the rock came from, and growls.

“Hey  _ fuckface _ \- you wanna play truth or dare? Here’s the truth -  _ you’re a sloppy bitch. _ ” He bends to grab another one, preparing to throw it. “Come on, let’s dance! Yippee ki-yay motherfuc-”

The world suddenly fades around him with a shrieking sound that he’s positive came from Pennywise, and everything becomes a static hum in the background. The last thing he sees is a bright orange light like a beam from a truck headlight. Everything feels weird. He can hear the screaming, echoing around his head like a mantra and it feels like time has stopped, but there’s something pushing through the haze, a voice, loud and clear; and it sounds  _ pissed _ .

“Beep, beep, motherfucker!”

Richie feels himself fall suddenly falling and the world is coming back to him - the cave is coming back - and he can see Pennywise, face split open where it had activated the deadlights and a spear shoved down its throat. He slams into the ground, groans in pain, and rubs the back of his head as everything starts to come back into focus.

The first thing he sees is Eddie standing over him looking worried. He drops to straddle Richie’s waist, trying to shake him back into full consciousness by tapping his cheek. “Come on buddy! Hey, listen Richie, I got him. I really think I killed him. I did it. I -”

Eddie’s words die in his throat as something sharp pierces through his body and jerks through his stomach. It’s of Pennywise’s scythe like limbs. Eddie looks confused, maybe even afraid, before he looks down at his stomach and then at Richie’s face.

“Ruh-Richie?”

There’s a tug, a scream, and Eddie is yanked away from him - raised high into the air before -

“ _ Beep, beep, motherfucker. _ ”

Richie feels himself fall suddenly falling and the world is coming back to him - the cave is coming back - and once again he can see Pennywise, face split open where it had activated the deadlights and the spear shoved down its throat. He slams into the ground, groans in pain, and rubs the back of his head as everything starts to come back into focus. It feels horribly familiar, a weird sense of deja vu that he’s just seen. Pennywise is screaming somewhere ahead, but its location is blocked out by Eddie who is standing above him.

_ No. _

Eddie drops to straddle his waist, trying to shake him back into full consciousness by tapping his cheek. 

_ No, no. _ He can’t see this a second time. He needs to  _ move _ . He need to do something before Eddie is hurt.

“Come on buddy! Hey, listen Richie, I got him. I really think I killed him. I -”

Richie lunges. He’s pretty sure he’s never moved so fast in his entire life - not even when the statue was chasing him at the park when he was younger. He shoves Eddie back, pins him flat against the cave floor, and hears the woosh of the sharp limb that should have pierced Eddie as it soars overhead and slams into the ground where he’d been lying a moment ago. Pennywise draws the arm back, and Richie looks up, taking instant note of it’s expression. 

It starts confused and then it fades into realisation. “You  _ saw _ .” Pennywise snarls, struggling to climb back to its feet, large limbs swinging in front of it as it does. “How dare you...” It swings its limbs for Richie who is already scrambling to his feet and wrapping a hand around Eddie’s arm to tug him along. “How... dare... you… change… things...”

Beverly feels the realisation sink in. Richie has seen something the way she had once. She remembers running into It at the apartment. How it had mocked her. 

_ “You haven’t changed anything yet.” _

Richie has changed something. She grabs a nearby rock as Pennywise makes for Richie, stabbing long limbs into the ground. 

“ _ How dare you alter my design! _ ” Its furious, breaking into a run to chase them. No one has ever changed its design before. No one has ever recovered from the deadlights fast enough too. Even Beverly hasn’t been able to despite remembering everything she’d seen.

Eddie is shoving Richie now, trying to make him go faster, to keep him safe and  _ alive _ like he’d just done to him. “Did you have to piss it off!?”

“Was I supposed to just let you die!?” Richie snaps back over his shoulder.

“That’s not what I meant asshole!”

“You not dying is literally why It is pissed right now Eds! It knows I saw what it was gonna do!”

They do a loop of the meteor remains, back towards where Beverly and Ben are standing and she doesn’t hesitate as they pass her. She launches the rock with a shout of  _ fuck you _ , manages to slam it against Pennywise’s forehead and makes it stumble backwards in confusion. It looks around, locates Beverly and shrieks as it charges for her. Ben dives for her, the two of them falling through a crevice that the clown can’t fit through because it’s too big so it settles for swiping its sharp limbs through the gap to try and get them.

Richie stops, unable to run anymore, and pants to catch his breath back. Eddie is there, a few feet away, his attention on the clown who seems more for focused with trying to get to Beverly and Ben right now. Someone grabs Richie, yanks him to one side, and clamps a hand over his mouth as they tug him behind a boulder. It’s Mike, and Bill is next to him, signalling for Eddie. They need some kind of plan. Some way to kill Pennywise.

**We are soldiers.**

It is the next day when Richie finds himself at an all familiar location. Everyone in Derry called it the Kissing Bridge, known for carving names and sucking face, though for Richie it was something else. For Richie it was a safe place, something that kept his secret for twenty-seven years. Until now. The secret it kept was no longer a secret. True to his thought process back in the cistern, he’d come clean to Eddie.

It had been at the quarry. Instead of heading back to the town house to clean off, they’d taken the leap in the quarry just like when they were kids to scrub off any blood or grime they had accumulated. It had been an accident, but it was a true Richie fashion to just blurt out  _ I’m gay _ \- something that had been met with complete support from his friends. It was just something he couldn’t keep in anymore.

It wasn’t until a little later when he was able to get a brief few minutes alone with Eddie that he went into further detail - that he admitted  _ feelings _ to his friend. Feelings that until now had been buried in a haze of shit he couldn’t remember about his past.

Richie crouches in front of the wooden railing, stares at the various carvings, dipping a hand into his pocket to retrieve a knife. He slides his thumb over the button to extend the blade, reaching out to grip at the railing.

_ Richie presses the blade to the wood of the railing, slowly dragging it across the wood, carving letters into the surface. _

Richie lowers the blade from the wood, taking in the letters that have been carved there for twenty-seven years and now retraced to look fresh. 

_ R + E _

“The E should be before the R - you know - because E loves R more.” A voice speaks up from behind him, grabbing his attention.

Richie looks over his shoulder towards his car where Eddie is leaning against the side. There’s a fresh bandage on his cheek, and the passenger door is now wide open. “Are you really going to start an argument with me over  _ this  _ of all things Eds?”

There’s a look that comes to Eddie’s face - something playful - and it’s accompanied with a teasing smirk. “I don’t argue, Rich, just speak the truth.”

“Shit like this is why I told you to just stay in the car.”

“You were taking too long.” Eddie complains, a playful edge to his voice.

Richie stands and heads back to the car, stopping right in front of Eddie. “If you don’t like long things, you’re really gonna hate my dick.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and pushes himself up from the car. “This is why E loves R more. He has to put up with the tasteless dick jokes.” Before Richie can respond, Eddie reaches out and grabs at his jacket lapels, and tugs him forward. He tilts his head up, connects his mouth with Richie’s in a kiss, and pulls away before Richie can even react to it. “So are we gonna get out of this shithole or what?”

They climb back into the car where Richie reaches over and laces his hand with Eddie’s, pulling it over to the gearstick where he pins it against the metal and adjusts his own hand to curl over it. “Yeah Eds, whatever the hell you want.” 


End file.
